I.R. 148, AB.: DIA forces referena on the sale of two blocks totalling 90,000 acres of the Kainai Reserve. Rejected in first referendum, and after much threat and coersion, accepted in a second Referendum. Sale never implemented because public inquiry revealed the extent of the coersion.

1917

AB.: Old Frank Road built through the debrise field of the Frank Slide.

1917

Frank, AB.: Rocky Mountains Sanatorium taken over by the federal government as the Frank Military Hospital.

1917

CPs Tie and Timber Branch buys King Lumbers cut-blocks and sets up a Mill at Yahk, BC.

Federal political: Military Service Act receives royal assent: imposes conscription in Canada.

1917

Aug. 29

Federal political: Soldier Settlement Act given assent: empowered to buy land for the settlement of returning soldiers.

1917

September

AB: Industrial Workers of the World radicals lead coal miners out on short strike in the Pass.

1917

Sep. 17

Federal: McGillivray Creek Coal and Coke incorporated.

1917

Sep. 21

AB: Found by contributor Ian McKenzie in his 2010/02/05 email to the author,a report in the Blairmore Enterprise of this date and again in the October 12th edition, that ...the long-awaited improved connection between BC and Alberta roadways (the route that skirted the southern edge of Crowsnest Lake, replacing the Phillipps Pass route), occurred at the Crowsnest Pass on Thanksgiving 1917. It was attended by Alberta provincial government dignitaries and driving groups from both Fernie and Coleman/Blairmore, who grouped their cars astride the Great Divide for photos.

1917

Autumn

AB: The miserable harvest from a dry year in the south-west. Beginning of a drought that lasted through 1919 and didnt really break until the early 20s.

Election, federal: R.L. Borden elected Unionist prime minister of Canada. Honourable Arthur Meighen appointed Minister of the Interior and superintendent-general of Indian Affairs. Honourable J.D. Reid appointed Minister of Railways and Canals.

1918

B.C.: Soldiers Land Act passed.

1918

AB: Workmans Compensation Act of Alberta implemented.

1918

AB: Lethbridge Coal Company begins operations between Lethbridge and Coalhurst. Worked until 1925.

1918

After suffering hostility and intollerance in the USA during the Great War, Hutterites began to migrate to Alberta and Manitoba.

AB & BC: United Mine Workers of America begin a 4-month long strike against District 18 mines to protest wage reductions. Radical One Big Union personnel usurp leadership of the strike, formed OBU District 1.

1919

May 3

New Dominion Copper Company, Limited, head office moved to that of the Canada Copper Corporation in Allenby, B.C.

1919

May 15

Winnipeg, MB: Winnipeg Trades and Labour Council calls out its members in a General Strike at 1100 hours. Violently suppressed; ended June 28th.

1919

May 21

Wednesday.

1919

May 21

B.C.: Minister of Lands, T.C. Patullo, begins accepting bids for the construction of the South Okanagan Irrigation Project main canal.

Federal: Canadian National Railway incorporated, consolidating the Canadian Northern Railway and the Canadian Government Railways consisting of the Intercolonial Railway, the National Transcontinental Railway, the Prince Edward Island Railway, and the Hudson Ray Railway under the executive largely of the CNoR led by David Blythe Hanna, president.

1919

June 18

Winnipeg, MB: Eight of the strike leaders arrested.

1919

June 20

Grand Forks, BC: The Granby smelter begins laying off workers.

1919

June 21

Winnipeg, MB.: RN-WMPolice and Specials kill two in the Winnipeg Riot.

1919

June 25

Winnipeg, MB.:Winnipeg General Strike ended.

1919

June 28

Paris: Treaty of Versailles signed.

1919

July 7

Canada: Soldier Settlement Act, revised, given assent.

1919

Aug. 7

B.C. and AB.: Captain Ernest Charles Hoy, DFC, flies his Curtiss JN4 Jenny from Vancouver to Calgary in 16 hrs and 22 minutes, the first pilot to fly over the Rockies. Stopped for fuel in Vernon, Grand Forks, Cranbrook, Lethbridge before arriving in Calgary at 2055 hrs.

1919

Sep. 7

Canada: International Coal and Coke Company, Limited, incorporates under federal Canadian law.

1919

Sep. 8

Elko, B.C.: conflagration destroys a significant portion of the central business district.

Morrissey, BC: CNP Coal closed the Carbonado coal mine for the last time.

1920

Southern Alberta: crop failure.

1920

February

Coalhurst, AB: School burns. Rebuilt.

1920

Feb. 1

The Royal North-West Mounted Police amalgamated with the Dominion Police to become the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

1920

Feb. 17

British Columbia and Alberta Power Company incorporated to buy up the assets of the Bull River Hydro Electric Power Company: A.E. Appleyard of Minneapolis, president; J.C. Donald of New York City, general manager.